New Zealand, the United States, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom have formed an informal alliance seeking to enhance ties with the Pacific.

Partners in the Blue Pacific (PBP) was formed on Thursday as officials met in Washington to discuss growing pressures on the Pacific region.

A White House statement said the region faced many urgent challenges, such as climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as growing pressure on the “rules-based free and open international order”.

The statement said the PBP would have three main focuses: to deliver results for the Pacific more effectively and efficiently; to bolster Pacific regionalism; and to expand opportunities for cooperation between the Pacific and the world.

“Together and individually, our five countries will enhance our existing efforts to support Pacific priorities, in line with the Pacific Islands Forum’s upcoming 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent,” the statement said.

“To do so, we will work with Pacific partners. We will map existing projects and plan future ones, seeking to drive resources, remove duplication, and close gaps, which will avoid greater burdens and lost opportunities for Pacific governments and Pacific people.

“In parallel, each of our governments will continue to increase the ambition of our individual efforts in the region.”

It said the countries would strive to form closer connections with Pacific governments and the Pacific Islands Forum.

And it said the partnership would facilitate greater engagement with the Pacific “by any other partner that shares the Pacific’s values and aims to work constructively and transparently to benefit the people of the region”.

The partnership comes as China makes forays into the Pacific, having signed a defence pact with the Solomon Islands.

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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in April she was concerned the pact could lead to increased militarisation of the Pacific, something China denies.

“We have continued to reiterate with the Solomons and China our view alongside the Pacific: That collectively, we are ready and available to meet the security needs of our neighbours,” Ardern said.

“We are concerned about the militarisation of the Pacific, and we continue to call on the Solomons to work with the Pacific with any concerns around their security they may have.”

In May, Ardern signed New Zealand up to the United States’ Indo-Pacific economic agreement, aimed at gathering support for economic competition with China.

The White House statement said the PBP would be led and guided by the Pacific Islands.

“We will seek Pacific guidance on the PBP’s selection of its lines of effort and its flagship projects,” the statement said.

“In meetings in Washington... our governments and Pacific Heads of Mission discussed diverse areas in which to deepen cooperation, including the climate crisis, connectivity and transportation, maritime security and protection, health, prosperity, and education.

“We commit to continuing to engage with Pacific governments as well as with Pacific-led regional institutions, particularly the Pacific Islands Forum.”

Speaking at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies on Thursday, White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell said cooperation between nations was vital.

”I think we all recognize that the challenges that we’re facing in the region are just dramatic,” he said.

”They, really, transcend any effort of any individual country, and I think one of our abiding beliefs and purposes is the idea that we will need to work together as we go forward, and that’s one of the reasons why we’re meeting here today.”

Campbell said the United States in particular “need to step up our game substantially” in dealings with the Pacific.

”We will do more,” he said. “I believe that consequential travel in which key components of the U.S. government deploy not just to the dominant islands but sometimes the islands that receive lesser attention, that will be an important part of our engagement going forward.

“And I think you will see more Cabinet-level and more senior officials going to the Pacific as we go forward.”